Over the last few years, technology has brought us new tools to use for improving sales & marketing activities.  One in particular is Marketing Automation (MA for short).  MA helps companies implement repeatable processes associated with nurturing leads of prospective and existing customers.   This new technology has given birth to a new process termed  “Demand Generation”.  A recent white paper I read defined Demand Generation as:  ‘The process of creating and nurturing interest (generating demand) in the products and services that your company offers”.  A simple Google search for the term Demand Generation yields over 25 million hits!  I’d say this is getting some press.  What’s intriguing is how radical technology has changed the way people behave.  The online world has nearly removed the sales person from much of the sales cycle - information that was obtained in the past can be found online in excess.  This reality is forcing businesses to relook at their business development processes and the role of their sales people.  Best in Class companies have adapted Demand Generation as a key part of their go-to-market strategy.  The are using interactive websites, content specific landing pages, auto-responders, social media, sophisticated databases and educational content to attract, nurture and stay in front of prospects and customers.  Marketing is no longer an outbound activity (sending stuff out - email, direct mail, advertising, etc.), it is moving to an inbound model (people searching for information and finding resources).  In order to manage interest and the flow of information efficiently, a company will need to have consistent, repeatable processes.  The challenge with implementing demand generation processes is creating the infrastructure, work flow and content.  New tools, skills and resources will be needed.

How is your company adapting to the “new buyer” paradigm?  What changes are you making to ensure you gain the most from your opportunities?  I’ve developed an audit to help companies determine how well they are using their sales & marketing resources.  You can access this audit by following this link.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Wouldn’t be nice if sales and marketing activities were aligned?  Some may ask, what does “alignment” mean?  Well, it means that both sales people and marketing resources are working together to identify potential customers, set qualification criteria, convert them to customers and then continue to work together to ensure the customer experience is maintained and maximized for the life of the customer.  Their individual incentives may even be the same.  Unfortunately, many organizations still have traditional expectations for these two groups - Marketing is responsible to get the word out, develop brochures, run ads and trade shows, keep the website current and primarily generate leads for salespeople.  Sales people are then expected to take the leads, diligently follow up, convert them to customers and then maintain the relationship, exclusively, for life.  Sound familiar?  If so, then you may have also heard “the leads marketing gives us are no good”, or, “the leads we gave to sales are not being followed up on”. In addition, few companies have formal systems or processes to align sales and marketing activities - less than half according to a 2008 survey by the CMO Council.

Much can be gained by aligning sales and marketing.  A cooperative effort will produce better results.  Best practices today place the burden of generating qualified leads on marketing.  But, for them to be successful, they need input from the sales team as to what constitutes “qualified”.  The reality is that most leads generated by marketing efforts are not qualified - they are in a unknown state and should be nurtured through a qualification process.  Not by a sales person, but, with tools and processes that are enabled by technology.

Now, once a qualified lead is passed to sales, the probability of converting that lead into a customer is much greater.  But, marketing’s role is not complete.  Again, best practices today will have marketing continue to work in support of the sales team by helping maintain direct and consistent communications with the new customer.  Basically, marketing and sales work together throughout the entire life-cycle of the customer.

Diluting sales people with unqualified leads can be very expensive.  And, the time wasted is at the expense of existing customers.  Aligning your resources can offer huge benefits.  There’s a ton of articles, white papers and new technology all built around the concept of sales and marketing alignment.  In summary, here are six tips you can use:

1. Get buy-in across your teams and from management.
2. Layout a process that shows where sales and marketing functions align, intersect and support each other.
3. Establish common definitions for leads to include the criteria that will be used to consider a lead qualified.
4. Collaborate on strategies and messages that are to be used at various stages of the sales cycle, and beyond.
5. Build a system that will show the progression of leads and provide insight as to what prospects and customers respond to.
6. Establish key measurements to gauge success.

The old adage: “together we stand, divided we fall” seems appropriate.  My advice to is examine your current process to see if you can achieve more efficiency and gain more opportunities through better alignment of your business development efforts .  As always, I welcome any comments or thoughts.

Barry

Interactive marketing is gaining awareness, slowly, but surely.  Recently I had the pleasure to be interviewed on Mind Your Business Radio Talk show in a Q&A session on interactive marketing.  If your interested in the subject and have a few minutes, I encourage you to give it a listen.  Also, spread the word.  Interactive marketing is a tremendous new strategy for marketers and businesses to not only capture and convert more customers, but, to nurture existing customers.  There’s excellent value to any sales organization, especially those involved in more complex sales.

Enjoy the interview….

NOTE: This interview is a large file and may take 20 to 30 seconds to load.  Please let me know what you think!